Caia — Restaurant in London

I went to this place in early January on a Saturday night with 2 others. The place is pleasant enough and we were welcomed warmly. That is the most pleasant comment I can make about this place as the rest of the evening went downhill from there.

The staff are as accommodating and helpful as they can be. It would be unfair to say otherwise. However, I have only given 2 stars for the service because of what happened during the meal.

The whole concept of this restaurant is nothing else but hot air; it is pretentious while offering unoriginal food which the restaurant presents to their customers as refined, sophisticated and unusual. Those who are unexperienced and unfamiliar with proper cuisine might go along with this masquerade but I left the restaurant annoyed, feeling that I had been ripped off.

The wine list is insultingly expensive for what it is. Indeed, we ordered a wine and when it arrived, one of the guests tasted it but was too polite to tell the waitress that it was undrinkable. I am French and more vocal; I tried it and spate it out as it was pure vinegar. Instead of offering us an alternative of more or less the same price, the waitress suggested a much more expensive bottle but then, she came back with a bottle of our original choice from a different vineyard. That bottle was acceptable but it made us wonder whether the restaurant was not trying to flog their stock of bad wine onto us, Notting Hill outsiders.

The dishes are minute and uninteresting. There is little difference between starters and main dishes. We ordered a good few of them including the chicken liver paté which came with a piece of bread. That dish was extremely simple but sufficiently good for us to order a second portion with an extra piece of bread as the size of the bread which had been served was very small. Well...... the dish arrived and the 2 pieces of bread too - the one which is automatically served with the dish and the extra one for which I was more than willing to pay for as an extra order. We looked at the bread and were all lost for words. They had CUT a standard piece of bread, served both pieces but presented them as separated pieces of bread with the intention of charging us for it.

The same guest who was too considered to critise the wine managed to grow some courage to ask the waitress whether they had cut the bread into 2 pieces to present them as whole pieces. The waitress admitted this situation and told us magnanimously that she would take the "extra piece" of bread off the bill. I don't think it is possible to treat clients with more disrespect than that. Shocking.

As a gesture of goodwill, given this appaling situation, the restaurant offered us our desserts for free. This gift came with a twist: we were 3 guests but we received 2 ice creams! I remain speechless at this experience...

Food we ordered: tuna tartare, oysters with single shot martini, chicken and waffles, sweet potato agnolotti, iberico ribs.

Tuna, not balanced, too much bitter shiso leaf. Oysters very good and the single shot martini straight from their freezer is excellent. Chicken and waffles, excellent, such an interesting flavor combo with liver parfait and rhubarb compote. Agnolotti was fine, nothing out of this world. For dessert, we had tiramisu, excellent flavor but served in weird bowl that’s difficult for sharing.

While food was excellent, I thought portions were criminally small for the prices. Spent 185 and was satisfied but I knew I’d be hungry within an hour vs I’ve spent 120 at other similarly excellent restaurants and been absolutely stuffed (think Straker’s and Canteen just around the corner).

Also unnecessarily got a reminder at 7:45 that the table was due at 8pm. Caia is no different than any other fancy modern European restaurant with regard to 1.5 hour maximum seating, but nowhere else did I need a warning that my table time was almost done, usually they can see that I’m finishing my dessert at 7:45, so I will definitely be out by 8pm. Not really a big deal, just from a service standpoint, felt unnecessary to kill an environment that so far had been extremely hospitable and does seem to be a noted pattern in...

We visited for dinner on a Saturday night. The venue is split over two floors. Upstairs had mainly high seating and felt more like a wine bar, while downstairs where we were seated felt like a more intimate setting for dinner.

We were 2 adults and 2 young kids and ordered the lamb salami, chicken liver parfait, chicken wings, nashi pear, mushrooms, agnolotti, stonebass, picanha (steak) and the veal sweetbreads. We tried both soft serves and the pannacotta for dessert. The food was excellent! There were many highlights throughout the meal including the parfait, agnolotti, mushrooms and stonebass. Desserts were less exciting though. It is worth noting that portion sizes are tiny, even across the items which we presumed to be larger plates based on menu descriptions and prices (steak, pasta…). We did end up ordering a second portion of a couple of items.

Service was quite friendly and food was delivered at a good pace. The bill for our meal came to £320, of which £60 was spent on drinks. While it ended up being a surprisingly expensive meal, we enjoyed some delicious, innovative food with nice wine in a buzzy venue with a good playlist. I’d go as far as to say this is my top pick in the area, which is a statement given some big hitting neighbours like Strakers and Dorian. I’ll...